Bill and Melinda Gates

Mr. Bill Gates was awarded the Shining World Leadership Award three times by Master. In June, Golden Year 3 (2006), he announced his resignation as Chief Software Architect at Microsoft in order to devote his time to improving global health and development through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For using wisdom and compassion to make life-changing choices and for drawing others toward a noble path that can bring peace and prosperity to all humanity, we applaud and celebrate the great deeds of this couple.

For the life saving PneumoADIP project, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed a very generous 50 million US dollars. This funding, part of a total 1.5 billion dollar package, will ensure that millions of children from the poorest countries receive the opportunity of a healthy and happy future! Vaccines targeting pneumococcal disease, a major cause of pneumonia and meningitis, will now be available at an affordable cost to countries that previously had no options. This noble deed of compassion and foresight by the PneumoADIP donors marks a historic effort to safeguard life and provide healthcare for millions of children.

Mr. and Mrs. Gates also made a generous US$10 million contribution to the Knowledge Is Power Program charter school system, benefiting Houston's less privileged students.

Mr. and Mrs. Gates' benevolence has inspired like-minded generosity, spreading well-being, optimism and prosperity throughout the region and around the world.